45 Amazing Moon Facts You Know Nothing About

An Italian proverb says, If the sun shines on me, I care not for the moon. It's a flippant remark as the Earth's satellite is some simple thing not worthy of consideration. But hey, men have walked on the moon, but they haven't walked on the sun. Incidentally, my advice on this sunwalking thing – you should really try it at night, it's much cooler. Anyway, I'm gonna share the most interesting facts about the moon with you, and it might change your mind about the moon's simplicity. 1. The existence of the moon was the result of a clash. Scientists believe it was formed from the debris of the Earth and another space object which was about the size of Mars after they ran into each other. 2. The moon is not an ideal sphere. It's shaped more like an egg because of the Earth's gravity. 3. The moon is the closest planet satellite to the sun, since Mercury and Venus, which are closer to the sun than Earth is, don't have satellite. Maybe they have cable? 4. With an average diameter of 2,159 miles, the moon is the 5th largest satellite in the solar system, after Jupiter's satellites Ganymede, Callisto, and Lowe, and Saturn's Titan. 5. We can see solar eclipses pretty often, but moon eclipses only happen once every several hundred years. 6. The moon looks as if it were the same size as the sun. The star is about 400 times bigger than the satellite, but astonishingly, it's also 400 times farther from us. That's why they seem to be equal in dimensions as viewed from the surface of the Earth. 7. Although the moon seems really bright, its ability to reflect sunlight is three times less than that of Earth. That's why, in combined photos, they make the moon look brighter artificially. 8. It would take about 300,000 moons to produce as much light at night as there is in the afternoon. About 206,000 of them would have to be full. 9. The moon is getting 1.5 inches farther away from Earth every year. At first, it was about 14,000 miles from Earth, and now, nearly 250,000 miles. In about 600 million years, its visual size from Earth will be so small that there will be no full solar eclipses. If you're still around then, leave me a comment below. 10. The moon causes high and low tides on Earth. The gravitational influence of the moon has this effect on oceans. The highest tide can be seen at full or new moon. 11. There are huge temperature fluctuations on the moon. Close to the moon's equator, the temperature rises from minus 279°F at night to plus 260°F in the afternoon. I think I dress in layers. 12. One moon day is equal to about 29 days on Earth. It takes that long for the sun to cross the lunar sky. 13. People always see the same side of the moon. The Earth's gravitational field makes the moon spin around its axis slower. That's why it takes the moon the same time to rotate around its axis as to orbit around the Earth. 14. It was only in 1959 that people could finally see the other side of the moon, thanks to a photo taken by the Russian spacecraft Luna 3. 15. The other side of the moon is more mountainous than the one we see from Earth. It can be explained by the Earth's gravity, which made the crust on the visible side of the moon thinner. 16. Craters on the moon were left by asteroids 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago. They're still visible only because geological changes on the moon aren't as active as on Earth. 17. Craters on the moon were first named after famous scientists, artists, and researchers, and later after American and Russian astronauts. 18. The greatest crater on the moon is called Aitken, after an American astronomer, and its diameter is 1,240 miles. In fact, it's the second largest crater in the solar system. 19. There's water on the moon, but leave your straw at home, it's all frozen in the craters and under the ground. 20. There are moonquakes on the surface of the moon. They're caused by the Earth's gravity, and their epicenters are several miles lower than the moon's surface. 21. The moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of the Earth's. If your weight here is 100 pounds, you'll only weigh 17 pounds standing on the moon's surface. You could also be able to walk a distance six times longer and carry a weight six times heavier there. 22. Although it's easier to walk, it's more dangerous too. An astronaut's foot in a heavy spacesuit might sink into the moon's ground up to 6 inches deep. Long-distance jumps can be uncontrolled and dangerous, as the moon's surface is full of deep craters. 23. Because of the low gravity, lunar dust, consisting of tiny, hard, and very sharp particles, and smelling of gunpowder, is all over the moon. It makes a mess, causes symptoms like hay fever, and gets into spacesuits, ruining them. 24. It's not all bad, though, since at sunset and sunrise, the dust sort of dances. It floats above the moon's surface because electromagnetic forces make the particles float up. 25. The moon does have a kind of atmosphere, which is called an exosphere. It consists of helium, neon, and argon. It's 10 trillion times less dense than on Earth. 26. The absence of oxygen in the atmosphere means that the sky is utterly black while the sun continues to glare. Because of that, the shadows are clean-cut and contrastive. If you hide in a shadow on the moon, you won't be able to see your hands and feet. 27. Since there's no atmosphere to speak of, day changes into night instantly on the moon. There's no twilight there. 28. Unlike what we used to learn at school, the moon doesn't rotate around the Earth. Both the Earth and the moon orbit around the same spot, which is called the barycenter. That makes some scientists believe that the moon isn't actually a satellite. 29. Well, what is it then? The Earth's satellite is more like a planet. The Earth and the moon are a double-planet system, similar to Pluto and Cheron. This is also proved by the moon's size, which has one-fourth of the Earth's diameter. All other known satellites are much smaller than their planets. 30. The moon is the only space body outside the Earth where humans have landed…so far. 31. 600 million people watched the first man in history take his first step on the lunar surface on TV. Yep, it was really cool. 32. Modern smartphones are more powerful than the computers that were used to land the Apollo spacecraft on the moon. 33. More than 400 trees that grow on Earth today were brought from the moon. In 1971, the seeds were taken by Apollo 14 to the moon's orbit, then brought back to Earth. 34. It's been 47 years since the last flight to the moon, but NASA is working on new rockets, Ares 1 and Ares 5, which will be able to bring cargo to the moon and get back. 35. There are fresh tracks on the moon's surface, even though almost 50 years have passed since astronauts last stepped on it. Does it prove that there's life on the moon? Nope. Tracks can stay there for millions of years, because there's no wind or liquid water on the moon to erode them. 36. 12 people have been to the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first one in 1969, and Eugene Cernan the last in 1972. 37. After the crew of Apollo 11 came back to Earth, they had to go through customs. Really. They declared they were bringing in moon rocks and dust. 38. The moon has its own time zone called Lunar Standard Time. It doesn't correspond to the Earth's time, though. A year on the moon consists of 12 days, named after astronauts who walked on the lunar surface. Days fall into 30 cycles, which in their turn consist of hours, minutes, and seconds. The calendar starts with the moment Neil Armstrong made his first step on the moon. 39. There's no water on the surface of the moon, and the ground is absolutely dry. That's why nothing can grow there. But specimens of lunar soil taken to Earth show that it's quite suitable for growing plants. 40. The dark spots we see on the moon are called mares, or lunar seas. There are 17 seas, one ocean, of storms, and four bays. But all of them are empty and dry. Scientists used to believe that there'd been water in them before, but the theory was proved wrong. 41. Lunar seas are lowlands filled with basalt lava, which became solid long ago. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Eagle spacecraft on the Sea of Tranquility. 42. The moon has no magnetic field of its own, but the stones brought by the astronauts have magnetic qualities. Scientists think that the moon used to have a magnetic field earlier, but lost it as a result of a collision with asteroids. 43. There are 200 tons of space junk on the moon. Actually, its experiments used up backpacks and the like left by NASA astronauts who landed on the moon from 1969 to 1972. The rest of the stuff was left by other countries, which made flights to the moon without a crew. 44. The oldest pieces of junk on the moon are parts of probes that were sent there to find out if it were possible to land on the lunar surface. In 1960, there was speculation that the moon was covered with quicksands, which would make it impossible for astronauts to land there. As you know, that theory was proved wrong. 45. Finally, there is no evidence of cattle on the lunar surface, or even any footprints. Per the nursery rhyme, hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon, no indication of any bovine presence, cow or bull, has been discovered on the moon. And yes, this last item was totally bull. But hey, don't go visiting the moon as a weight loss method just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out. 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